Edward W. Mantel died Wednesday, August 28th 2001 of complications from myelofibrosis and acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Ed was born in Townsend, Montana April 24, 1943 to Josephine and John Mantel. He joined four siblings Mike, Mary Jane, Annabelle (Muggs) and Dorothea Sass. A sixth sibling, Judy Guffey, completed the family with her birth in 1947.

After second grade, Ed's family moved to Helena where Ed completed high school in 1961. He then went to Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, receiving a B.A. degree in 1964. After a year of graduate schoolwork at Roosevelt University Ed began teaching English and social studies at Harrison High School on Chicago's southwest side..

After five years at Harrison High School, Ed moved in 1970to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There he taught Department of Defense dependents for two years. He then transferred to a Department of Defense high school in Nuernberg, Germany. He met and married on April 24, 1973 his wife Mary Jane. They had two sons, Mark born in 1976, and Michael born in 1978. 

While teaching at Nuernberg High School Ed continued his studies. He received his masters degree from the University of Arizona in 1975 and his doctor of education degree from the University of Southern California in 1979.

In 1983 Ed became an administrator at Nuernberg High School. In 1985 he was transferred as an assistant principal to Osterholz American School near Bremen, Germany. In 1988 he was transferred as principal to the Illesheim Elementary/Middle School. He served there until January 1998 when he was diagnosed with ideopathic myelofibrosis and medically retired. His wife and he then moved to Layton, Utah so she could work with the Army recruiting station in Salt Lake City.

Ed was preceded in death by his mother Josephine Guffey (July 2000), his biological father, John Mantel (April 1955), and his sister Judy Guffey Zuroff (November 1994). He is survived by his wife Mary and his two sons, Mark (Wixom, MI) and Mike (Shawnee, OK). He is also survived by his father Charles Guffey (Helena, MT), his brother Mike Sass (Helena, MT), and sisters Dot Gilbert (Helena, MT), Muggs Bridgewater (Shelton, WA) and Mary Jane Anstine (Greenacres, WA). He is also survived by fourteen nieces and nephews, ten grand nieces and nephews and four great grand nieces and nephews.